Manley Hopkins

“ With our own hearts. In presence of The End
Our cheerful banter oft gave way to words
More true and earnest,—oft in silence died.
For sometimes we speak most by silent acts;
Averted eyes; the breaking short a flower;
A stifled sigh; the pressure of a hand,
Its warmth excused, as sign of absent mind.
And the heart hath an ear more swift to read
Such silent language, than if words precise
Were writ on parchment with the best nibbed pen. ”

“ Through gaps, o’er stiles, and into copses close:
And oft we heard her merry ringing laugh,
As caught by briars she burst her daring way.
Amoret and I in safer, trodden paths
Kept on our course. Sometimes I bent a bough,
While she with ungloved fingers, shining white
’Mid green, translucent leaves, broke off the bunch
Of grey and glossy nuts: and if she leant,
So doing, on my arm her welcome weight,
She blushing begged a pardon for the wrong.
When the slant sun shot dazzling through the boughs,
We sought our lost companions,—out of reach
Of hearing, and of Amoret’s clear call. ”